Seeing as this is my very first (eek!) blogpost on this website, I thought it would be a good idea to start by explaining the importance of organizing your practice. Lots of musicians (and believe me when I say this) go through their careers without ever practicing in a particularly mindful way... They rely on their innate musicality, sight reading abilities, or even hide behind the sheer amount of time they spend at their instruments. This method does yield results (however big or small), but can be detrimental to one’s self-esteem and fulfilment as a musician in the long run. You see, when you spend hours at your instrument consistently with little to show for it, you may start to...
Hello, my friend... I’m glad to see you back here :) In the last post, I gave you the run-down on how I came to making the Efficient Musician Practice Planner. Now, let’s get to the good part and talk about how it will take your practice to the next level. DESIGNED FOR THE ACADEMIC YEAR This planner is dated specifically for the academic year. This is because most musical events and calendars are structured this way, not to mention the events important to music students, like competitions, festivals, and auditions. Quite frankly, I never understood why (any) agendas would start at the beginning of the year. This might be just me, but it was a major annoyance to have...
So... if you’ve been reading the past few posts, you’ve been following the story of the Efficient Musician Practice Planner. From what made me create the Practice Planner, to how exactly to use it, it seems like we covered it all. All but... ITS EVOLUTION. No doubt about it, the Practice Planner took a LOT of prior planning, and many different design variations. By sharing them, I hope to inspire you to take the leap into whatever it is you might be thinking of starting. And just remember - we all start somewhere (and usually that somewhere isn’t particularly glamorous...). For me, it all started with an idea. I had always been obsessed with planners, agendas, and organizing my time....
Hello everyone! Let’s talk about how you can use the Weekly Journal in the Efficient Musician Practice Planner to organize your time in the practice room. I tracked my own practice this week in order to give you an example and (hopefully) some inspiration. Keep reading for some *satisfying* and productive dopamine hits! For the purpose of this blogpost, I transferred my markings to a scan of the notebook. Let’s start with page one :) First things first, let’s talk about my habit of the week... My pinky has been an issue for the longest time. For as long as I can remember, my teachers have been telling me to relax my pinky, hold it down, and everything under the...
“I don’t have time to practice...” “I have so many things going on...” “I will practice when my schedule is less crazy...” Sound familiar? My friend, I’m sorry to say that if you find yourself saying something to this effect on the reg, nothing can help you. You see, we all have the same 24 hours in a day. And before you say that some people have more free time than others (which is true), scavenging for lost practice hours is first and foremost a mindset. In order to find time to practice, you have to be willing to look for it. Can you shorten your screen time? Can you wake up earlier in the morning? Can you skip going...
